Ones to Watch at Liverpool Sound City 2018

Liverpool Sound City 2018 is upon us and with it comes a bustling day of new music, new music, and... err... new music.

This year, the showcase festival strips back to its bare bones to refocus on doing what it loves the most: hosting some damned decent music. That sounds like common sense, but with music festivals increasingly competing for column space and ticket sales, it's all too easy for promoters to forget their main purpose. (If there's not a tendency to veer away from music altogether - venison and beetroot stake with creme de horseradish anyone? - then the line-up is simply a duplication of something happening at the other end of the country.) Sound City 2018 avoids becoming a parody of itself by inviting "the best brains in music" (including DrunkenWerewolf) to curate the bill, and a skilfull knack for bringing in diverse talent from across the continent also makes them stand out from the crowd.

It's not unusual for LSC & Co to pull out the goods when it comes to admirably refreshing line-ups, and that's not where the fun stops for the 2018 event. We're sure many will appreciate a relocation to The Baltic Triangle to secure the festival's success. The shift follows heavy criticism of the 2017 day out at the edge of the Mersey when uninvited dust clouds invaded every nostril going.

So, if you're heading towards Liverpool Sound City 2018 on 5th May, who should you go and see? There are so many, we know it'll be hard to choose on the day - harder still when you consider there are bound to be clashes amongst the artists listed below. Here are the artists we recommend you somehow miraculously fit into one day at Sound City 2018.